from Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun,

The St. Louis Blues played the classic “it’s not you, it’s me,” card so often Sunday, you’d swear they were breaking up with the San Jose Sharks and wanted to let them down easy.

The Blues spent most of their off-day media availability explaining how they had a major role in virtually every aspect of San Jose’s 6-3 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference championship.

They are the reason San Jose scored five times in the first two periods. They are the reason San Jose feasted on all those turnovers. They are the reason goaltender Jorden Binnington looked uncharacteristically shaky. They are the reason they have fallen behind in a series for the first time in these playoffs.

“It was all self-inflicted,” began Blues coach Craig Berube, surrounded by a pack of reporters in the team’s hotel lobby. “They do a good job of hounding pucks and they’re tight on you, but it was self-inflicted on our part, turning pucks over at bad times.

“We didn’t have the puck enough and we had it we gave it back to them too easily.”

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